SPONSORED CONTENT -- (StatePoint) True Love is at it again this holiday season – and paying more than ever. According to PNC’s Christmas Price Index (CPI), the final price tag to buy all of the gifts in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” comes to $51,476.12 this year, headlined by drastic increases in the price of gold and the famed partridge’s Pear Tree.
For more than 40 years, PNC has tracked the price of the birds, entertainers, and other gifts that comprise the classic holiday song as part of its Christmas Price Index, a light-hearted take on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index. Fulfilling True Love’s shopping list will cost 4.5% more in 2025 than it did in 2024, outpacing the BLS index, which rose 3% from October 2024 to October 2025.
“This year’s index reflects pressures from a tight labor market and lingering global economic uncertainties,” said Amanda Agati, chief investment officer of PNC’s Asset Management Group. “However, tariffs are not a driver at all because True Love’s shopping list only includes domestically produced goods and services.”
Highlights from this year’s index:
• The gold standard
For two years the price of The Five Gold Rings stayed flat, but that brief run of stability is over. The rings jumped by 32.5% – the biggest increase in the CPI this year. That’s an actual annual price increase of more than $400, reflecting a surge in gold prices overall. Inflation, expected Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, and a declining U.S. dollar have pushed investors to precious metals in 2025.
Overall, just more than half the gifts rose in price in 2025. Aside from gold, the biggest movers were the Partridge and the Pear Tree, and the Ten Lords-a-Leaping. For the former, the overall 13.5% increase is entirely attributable to the Pear Tree, reflecting increases in the price of labor, land and fertilizer and also serving as a proxy for U.S. housing costs.
The Ten Lords-a-Leaping have consistently grown in price over the life of the index – aside from 2020 pandemic restrictions on live entertainment. The lords remained the highest priced overall gift in the index at $15,579.65 and are a reflection of the growing cost of performers. The four entertainment-related gifts all increased in price in 2025, with the aggregate price increasing by 5.4%.
• Status quo for birds
Aside from the Six Geese-a-Laying, which rose by 3.3% this season, the other four gifts consisting entirely of birds cost the same as they did in 2024.
Historically, the bird gifts are some of the most consistently priced in the CPI, with both the Four Calling Birds and the Seven Swans-a-Swimming remaining unchanged for more than a decade. The Swans – formerly the most expensive gift in the index are only roughly $5 more than they were in 1984. Despite their consistency, their elevated total price of $13,125 has historically inflated the index, leading to a “core index,” which measures growth in the CPI independent of the Swans. This year that grew by 6.1%.
• Online shopping relief
Trekking from store to store for all these goods can be cumbersome, but it’s ultimately cheaper than fulfilling True Love’s list online for $55,748.05 – shipping and packaging all those birds is expensive.
• Getting technical
If you’ve ever heard or sung “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” you know the verses repeat after each gift is introduced. If you’re feeling traditional and wanted to buy all the gifts as the verses repeat, you’ll pay the “True Cost of Christmas,” which is $218,542.98 in 2025.
PNC’s Christmas Price Index is now in its 42nd year. Visit the PNC Christmas Price Index website for more information and interactive charts.
“With the Fed’s recent focus on looser monetary policy, it will be interesting to see where the CPI shakes out in 2026,” says Agati. “Will we get the gift of substantially lower inflation, or will still-elevated inflation be the proverbial lump of coal in shoppers’ and investors’ stockings? It all depends on whether the purple haze of policy uncertainty dissipates in the new year.”
Photo Credit: (c) Liubomyr Vorona / iStock via Getty Images Plus